Last january 10th was my dad's 75th birthday. I thought I'd surprise him with a painting I did of him, when he was 25. Hey, it's not perfect, but I put enough care and detail to make sure I could recognize him everytime I saw the painting. I'm glad I did this - my dad has had this incredible life, and I think this small trinket of appreciation is the least I could do to honor him

while he's still alive.

His life could be this incredible movie. To shortly tell you about it, Paul Claude was born in 1932. He used to be a christian priest in Haiti until he was taken prisoner by Duvalier at Fort Mercredi, along with other priest prisoners, who were killed. He was exiled to France. He then traveled for quite a few years across France, Germany, Austria, (probably more) and Rome - where he went to university (4 years at the Vatican, in Latin only). Later on in his life he came to Quebec City, where he met my mother. He then defroked to marry her, and they had me a year later. In 1985 he was diagnosed with a brain tumor the size of a fist. It took over 2 years and 12 brain surgeries to get rid of it - it was still done by hand at the time. This left him paralyzed on his entire right side. The man who had two doctor's degrees in Egyptology and Theology, spoke 7 languages including latin and greek, teached philosphy in college and researched for the Nag Hammadi library, barely could speak his native language (french) anymore. The doctors had said he would never walk again, and would have a difficult time re-integrating society. My mother helped him a lot through the whole ordeal, visiting him everyday at the hospital while raising me alone and doing all she could to get more money.

Well, with an iron will and much support from caring people and us, he decided he would walk again, and so he did. He learned to speak well again, so well that he even took back his place as philosophy professor, and researcher. He later retired and since then has developped the hobby of drawing, with his left hand (he used to be a rightie), doing portraits with a style of his own. I'm working on creating this web gallery for him, so he can sell his drawings on there. I'll show some on here later on.

Until now, he's had a total of 12 brain operations, and 7 post-operation fix-up surgeries, over a total of 20 years or so. My mom has been with him all the way. So have I.